Tuesday, 14 July 2009

The S.A.A.C Project

The Student Arise Against Conflict (S.A.A.C) project is targeted at students in 10 secondary Schools from Classes JSS 1-SSS 3. SAAC believes that conflicts arises from a break down in communication at the different levels in society be it the family, school, church and other social institutions. Therefore the preparation of young people as conflict mitigators is very necessary for the attainment of peace in our society.
The SAAC project is focused on the 2 local government areas in Cross River State (Calabar South and Calabar Municipality) in the Calabar metropolis. The reason for this spread is because of the social stratification existing in these local governments, this difference in economic power and social amenities provided to these areas do cause enemity between students residing in this area, there are also reported cases of inter-school fighting among students of various secondary schools.
The project objectives are:

• To increase the knowledge base of students in peace, conflicts resolution and management
• To examine the dimensions of conflicts facing students in their daily lives
• To explore management and preventive strategies to conflict issues amongst students
• To educate students on communication skills especially dialogue and tolerance as an effective way to addressing conflicts
• To reduce incidences of conflicts amongst students, school authority and interschool relations
• To publicize YAC FD project to students, teachers and other stake holders.

The S.A.A.C project would be Implemented using the following strategies:

• Publicize an essay competition for students in the Secondary Schools (Class Range-JSS 3-SS3) on the topic: “The effects of conflicts in our lives” -1500 words Maximum!
• Organize a SAAC Workshop for students from 8 secondary Schools(4 from Calabar South and 4 from Calabar Municipality-5 students per School)
• Present Prizes to Winning Essays at the SAAC Workshop
• Workshop Sessions would address the following areas, Peace Building, Conflict Management, Communication and Human Relationship Skills as well as Decision making skills.
• Inclusion of conflict management (linking that to MDGs Goal 8)to topics discussed by the MDGs clubs existing in these schools and the creation of such clubs in schools where there are non-existent.
The S.A.A.C project is supported by the Forgotten Diaries small grant programme.